Just a little curiosity, for those interested.. of 1984 vintage, here's a clip (2.9MB) of BBC1 closing down for the night, back in the days when their broadcasting ended around midnight. It's an enjoyable piece of ephemera, with the studied tones of the continuity announcer giving his parting words for the day, before offering the weather forecast (entirely un-animated, and purely 2D. Heavens! :), and leaving with the national anthem.

And picture of the day has to be Mutley's iPorn. Probably not ideal for work, but funny. ^_^ (Thanks to rabitguy)

Hehe. ^_^ It's interesting to see how things have changed quite a bit, in not really all that long a period - BBC1 & 2 are both round the clock now, and Channel Four was still quite new in 1984. Now, there's Five as well, rounding off the terrestrial analogue services, with several more available digitally, including a swathe of new (since then) BBC channels, including BBC 3 (general entertainment, I think.. they don't seem to have a very clear idea of their role), BBC 4 (emphasis on the arts, with some great music coverage), Parliament, News 24, CBBC (children), and probably others besides.

Thankfully, the BBC, in common with the other broadcasters, retains continuity announcers. There's something oddly comforting about knowing there are Actual People involved, rather than it all being out of a box and a dish, as so many US radio stations are. (Having worked on such a system.. :-P It's perfectly easy to have one of them set up as essentially a highly complex timer, switching in the main satellite feed (wondered why so many stations of a given genre sound the same? It's because they're running off the same feeds), inserting the ads, idents, and assorted jingles as appropriate, automatically logging the ads for the billing module - and they're reliable enough to be run completely unattended)

I should dig up the opening of Channel Four, come to think of it. ^_^ Nothing very dramatic, but it's still sort of geekily fun, seeing the first scheduled transmission from a new broadcaster as it enters the world.. ^_^

Ah! That reminds me - time to check if the latest Doctor Who is ready for download yet. *grin*